Word for the Church: Spirit of Division

I wrote medieval-setting novels a while back, complete with epic battle scenes involving swords, lances, banners, standards, warhorses, chainmail, and other fun reminders of the times. One thing I learned in my research for the setting was that, in battle, a standard -- a heraldic flag -- was essential for military unity. On-the-ground fighting, where one could only see spears and people in helmets and chain mail thundering by, made personal identification nearly impossible. The standard-bearer was the one who identified the commander. He stayed by the commander, and as he raised the standard high, he was the one to whom all eyes would turn when they lost their frame of reference, when the fighting was too intense, when all manner of strategy seemed gone.

Church, we're in a battle, in case you haven't noticed. What? Nah, nobody's coming to my door with a gun, we're not suffering persecution like the underground church in countries across the ocean, etc. We're fine.

Our battle in the U.S. may look a little different from some battles elsewhere, but we're still fighting one, and the Holy Spirit gave me to understand that our battle is against a particular spirit: The spirit of division.

This spirit has used methods that have pushed further than I've ever seen in my short 41 years. Whereas in the past, those in the church who don't see eye to eye can "agree to disagree," we have now reached the point where "agreeing to disagree" is considered unacceptable. 

I'll use a hot-button topic as an example, because that's what the Lord was using to illustrate this to me: Vaccines and mask-wearing. Because of the stakes on both sides of the issue, most of us in the church are determined that one way is the right way, and there's no grace offered to the opposing perspective.

Just as a reminder, the only Way that we should be following is Jesus (John 14:6).

I've got nothing against masks (except that I don't enjoy them, but I think I share that feeling with 100% of the population), and I'm so thankful for vaccines. But I think the Holy Spirit is telling me to urge us, the church, to look past these things and see the enemy that is using these things to divide the church.

Brother against brother, sister against sister, parent against child, husband against wife.

I've seen it everywhere, and I'm not excluded. This spirit uses fear to plow his furrows in our hearts, and it uses pride -- the "I'm right and you're wrong" mentality -- to deeply root those seeds of fear right there in the furrows.

Fear is not from the Lord. 2 Timothy 1:7 says: "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." Pride is detestable to the Lord. Proverbs 6:16-19 says: "There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to Him: Haughty eyes...".

There is Truth, Who is Jesus (John 14:6), Who shows me (Matthew 12:25-30 -- I'll get to that in a second) that the issue at stake is not about wearing masks or not wearing masks, getting vaccines or not getting vaccines. The issue at stake is the spirit of division that uses these things as tools to divide the body of Christ.

Spiritual warfare is real (check out Daniel 10:12-14, 20-21, many of Jesus' healings throughout the Gospels, the story of Peter's miraculous prison-break in Acts 12, as well as the unequivocal, power-packed statement in Ephesians 6:12), and while we have the victory in Christ, we should not underestimate or treat the enemy lightly. He is insidious. "So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12). How often do we stumble into the traps the enemy lays out for us, especially when we think we're fine, we're strong, we're Christians, for Pete's sake, we've got the power of the Lord on our side, why would we fall?

So, since we fight spiritual battles more often than perhaps we realize, we are told to stand firm (Ephesians 6:13-14). And I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say our stance should not stand firm on one side or other of the mask debate or the vaccine debate. Let's take it a step further and stand firm, with conviction on Jesus, Who is our Life (John 14:6), the only Hope we have of surviving death -- for eternity. 

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood" -- or against Billy Bob who doesn't want to wear masks and shame on him for subjecting us all to Covid, or against Jenny Jane who wears masks to bed at night and preaches to everyone that they should do the same and shame on her for limiting our freedoms... 

Our struggle is rather "against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil -- that's the spirit of division -- in the heavenly realms" (Ephesians 6:12).

It seems that we've lost our frame of reference, Church. Each other is not the enemy. My maskless sister, my unvaccinated brother, my masked friend, my vaccinated family member IS. NOT. MY. ENEMY.

My enemy is Satan, because he is God's enemy, and I stand with Jesus. Jesus is my Standard. Jesus had something to say about this in Matthew 12:25-30: "Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, 'Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you... He who is not with Me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.'"

In Isaiah 59:19, it says: "So shall they fear the Name of the Lord from the west and His glory from the rising of the sun (in other words, so shall they fear the Name of the Lord globally, because west and east is present here). When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him."

So the word I believe the Holy Spirit has given to the church today is this: Let's look up and find our standard. Find our frame of reference. Remember who the enemy is. Sure, have an opinion; sure, do what you can to help other people according to your viewpoint, but when we dig our fear furrows and root our pride plants... we've divided our household, our body of Christ, and we will not stand.

Rebuke the spirit of division where he works his way into your thoughts and your way of life. Rebuke it in the all-powerful Name of Jesus, Who is our Standard. Y'all, we've been so busy rebuking each other, we haven't rebuked the enemy at our gates.

I'll end with this: "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity. It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows His blessing, even life forevermore" (Psalm 133).